[mgmt] release: 0.0.18 (core engine algorithm rewrite!)

[James]

I've just released version 0.0.18 of mgmt!

> 202 files changed, 5606 insertions(+), 1880 deletions(-)

There's some great stuff that landed since 0.0.17, including:

* A re-write of the core engine algorithm
* Tests are very stable
* At least three old bugs were killed
* An infra to write tests for individual resources was added

And much more...

This adds a significant amount of polish and bug fixes to mgmt. We're
on the home stretch to MVP!

DOWNLOAD

Prebuilt binaries are available here:
https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/releases/tag/0.0.18

NEWS

* There was a rare race that would panic the engine on shutdown. This
only seemed to happen in CPU/system call starved environments like
travis-ci. This was due to some ignorance when writing this early part
of the code base. The algorithm has been re-written, and this also
removed the use of at least one mutex. Things should be stable now, and
also much faster. (Although perf was never an issue.)

* A hidden race/deadlock in the exec resource was found and killed.
Woo! Some new tools to help find these and other problems are in misc/

* The early converger code was re-written. I was not as knowledgeable
about golang in the very beginning, and this code needed refreshing. It
contained a rare deadlock which needed to be killed.

* Toshaan added an uptime() function.

* Julien added a method for generating some simple functions for the
language.

* Lander added two new functions.

* James added a new readfile() function, and other examples.

* The template function now allows you to use imported functions. They
use underscores instead of periods for namespace separation due to a
limitation in the template library.

* Kevin and I killed a tricky race in the SocketSet code! Woo :) Kevin
also added a great cpucount() fact!

* James gave a number of presentations at FOSDEM. Some recordings are
available: https://purpleidea.com/talks/

* We're looking for help writing Amazon, Google, DigitalOcean, etc
resources if anyone is interested, reach out to us. Particularly if
there is support from those organizations as well.

* Many other bug fixes, changes, etc...

* See the git log for more NEWS, and for anything notable I left out!

BUGS

* An unfortunate bug in the type unification code was found. This can
cause small code bases to take a lot of ram/cpu to run. This will be
prioritized in an upcoming release. Until then you'll have to avoid
fancy type unification. (Specify types you know when it has to guess.)

If efficient type unification algorithms are your specialty, please let
us know, we'd like your help!

MISC

We're still looking for new contributors, and there are easy, medium
and hard issues available! You're also welcome to suggest your own!
Please join us in #mgmtconfig on Freenode IRC, or ping this list if
you'd like help getting started! For details please see:

https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/blob/master/docs/faq.md#how-do-i-con
tribute-to-the-project-if-i-dont-know-golang

Many tagged #mgmtlove issues exist:
https://github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%
3Amgmtlove

MENTORING

We offer mentoring for new golang/mgmt hackers who want to get
involved. This is fun and friendly! You get to improve your skills,
and we get some patches in return. Ping me off-list for details.

THANKS

Thanks (alphabetically) to everyone who contributed to the latest
release:
Felix Frank, James Shubin, Jeff Waugh, Johan Bloemberg, Julien Pivotto,
Kevin Kuehler, Lander Van den Bulcke, Toshaan Bharvani
We had 8 unique committers since 0.0.17, and have had 58 overall.
run 'git log 0.0.17..0.0.18' to see what has changed since 0.0.17

Happy hacking,
James
@purpleidea

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